She hesitated. Then hesitated some more. Then she finally lifted her hands to ask and sign, “You mean, like, pretend my father never arrested you?”

“Yes, pretend that I went to Tufts and you went to RhIDS at the same time, as I planned. We got married when we were eighteen, but we’ve had a long-distance relationship up until now. Let’s pretend that I’m now working in Rhode Island for a few months. For four months. Until May 25th. You said you had a big presentation on that day. I could make you a new promise. We don’t have to meet until 8 pm for our last anniversary. We could both get what we want.”

She shook her head at Victor. Like he was signing a version of ASL she didn’t understand. But then she asked, “What kind of work do you do? What would I tell my classmates who have a lot of questions about you after today, by the way?”

“Import/export,” he signed. Then he spelled both words when she clearly didn’t understand the signs.

She raised her eyebrows at him. “Import/export. Is that the classic Chinese mafia cover story?”

“No,” he signed back, giving her a stern look. Then he let himself grin a little to admit, “It is all mafias cover story. Not only Chinese. Don’t be racist.”

Her eyes widened, but then she burst out laughing. And he did too, shoulders shaking as they used to all the time when he was with her. Before.

But then, she sobered to ask, “And how about after our anniversary? What would happen then?”

“The same as before,” he answered. “Your time would be up, and your punishment would be done.”

“So this would be like Operation Good as New 2.0.” She bit her bottom lip, so many emotions swirling in her eyes. “But it feels like a trick. I don’t understand why you’re asking me to do this. Why you’re letting me do my thesis presentation? I mean, everything’s a command with you. If you wanted to, you could just tell me that this was how it was going to be, and I would have to play along, even if I didn’t get to present my thesis.”

“I don’t want you to play along. If we do this, I want you to want it too. It would be like… what do Westerners call it at the end of the relationship when two people who shouldn’t be together do something to be psychologically okay with never seeing each other again?”

She blinked a few times, then she guessed, “Closure? Are you talking about closure?”

His heart shivered at the word. At the thought of never seeing her again after their anniversary, when she would be free, and he would be required to marry Kuang’s daughter. But he nodded, nonetheless.